Sept. 29 in History: On this day in 1901, Enrico Fermi, a solid claimant to the title “Father of the Atomic Bomb,” was born in Rome, Italy. A rare science pioneer conversant in both theoretical and experimental physics, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1938. That same year, he emigrated to the U.S. with his wife, Laura, who because she was Jewish would have been affected by Italys growing anti-Semitic strictures. In America, at the beginning of World War II, Fermi was tapped to lead the team of the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago charged with employing the energy principle of Einsteins Special Theory of Relativity to construct a nuclear reactor to achieve a self-sustaining atomic reaction; this knowledge in turn could be exploited to build a powerful atomic bomb for potential use against the Axis Powers. Nazi Germany had a notion to build one to defeat the Allies. Fermis team finally achieved a self-sustaining nuclear reaction Dec. 2, 1942, in Chicago Pile-1, in a secret lab under the West Stands of Stagg Field, used for football games until the U of C abandoned the sport in 1939. Despite his projects ultimately grisly objective, Fermi was a good-natured, humane man, even a little absent minded. After I arrived as a student at the U of C in 1966, there was an anecdote we heard repeatedly: Walking across the main quadrangle one day, Fermi encountered and conversed with a colleague. As they parted, Fermi asked the man from which direction he was walking when they met. When the man told him, Fermi responded, “Good. Ive had lunch.” The Enrico Fermi Institute for critical scientific research was established on campus in 1945. The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory at Batavia, Ill., is also named in his honor. Sadly, Fermi died of cancer at only 53, in 1954. A massive bronze sculpture by Henry Moore, “Nuclear Energy,” now stands directly over the spot where the first chain reaction occurred – now buried under tons of cement – and was dedicated exactly 25 years after the fact, on Dec. 2, 1967. When Stagg Field was demolished in 1966–67, I retrieved a concrete chunk of the West Stands; that probably slightly irradiated memento is likely among some of my plunder orphaned in a sisters barn in Wisconsin. WHOLE LOTTA BIRTHDAYS GOIN ON: Also on this day, in 106 BC, Pompey the Great, Roman politician and general, was born. … In 1547, author Miguel de Cervantes, creator of Don Quixote, was born in Spain. … In 1758, British sea captain Lord Horatio Nelson, hero of Cape Trafalgar, was born. … In 1904, actress Greer Garson was born in London; she died in 1996. … In 1907, singing Western star Gene Autry was born in Tioga, Texas; he died in 1998. … In 1931, actress and beauty (Miss Sweden) Anita Ekberg, 83, was born in Sweden. … In 1934, University of Chicago psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of (and originator of the concept) “Flow,” was born in Hungary. … In 1935, Southern rocker Jerry Lee Lewis was born in Ferriday, Louisiana.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 19:25:59 +0000
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